Abstract The surface of the Earth is the ever-changing expression of the dynamic processes occurring at depth and at or above its surface. However, our ability to “read” landscapes in terms of their underlying tectonic or climatic forcing remains rudimentary. During the last decade, particular attention has been drawn to the deep dynamic contributions to topography, related to the stresses that are produced at the base of the lithosphere by mantle convection, and their relevance compared to the (iso)static component of topography. Here, we use examples from the Mediterranean and estimate residual and dynamic topography. We then compare those with surface uplift from geology for specific regions to disentangle the dynamic from the static components. Considering the different topographic signatures of tectonic processes (e.g. actual, residual, and dynamic topography as well as uplift rates) jointly provides a powerful way to distinguish between the contributions of mantle, crustal, and surface processes. Such an approach might bring us closer to reading topographic expressions in terms of their geological cause.

中文翻译：

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地中海地幔动力学的地形表达

摘要 地球表面是发生在地表深处、地表或地表之上的动态过程的不断变化的表现。然而，我们根据潜在的构造或气候强迫“解读”景观的能力仍然很初级。在过去十年中，特别关注对地形的深层动态贡献，与地幔对流在岩石圈底部产生的应力有关，以及它们与地形的（等）静力分量相比的相关性。在这里，我们使用地中海的例子来估计残差和动态地形。然后，我们将那些与特定区域的地质表面隆起进行比较，以从静态分量中解开动态。考虑到构造过程的不同地形特征（例如实际的、残余的、和动态地形以及抬升率）共同提供了一种强有力的方法来区分地幔、地壳和地表过程的贡献。这种方法可能使我们更接近于根据地质原因来解读地形表达。